Reverdie
by ForeverWes
Summary: Set in early Season 2 Angel, Wes, and Cordelia take a road trip to North Carolina where they are pursued by the requisite demon cult and face a host of other problems.


Summary: Set in early Season 2. Angel, Wes and Cordelia take a road where they are pursued by the requisite demon cult and face a host of other problems.  
  
Written for the Spring Angel BoD challenge   
Requirements:  
Character: Angel   
Genre: Action/adventure   
And: Reference to Indiana Jones movie(s)   
Restrictions: No ships and No character death   
  
The blood flowed smoothly over the barren ground, green patches of grass appearing in places where the ground had begun to absorb it. So much blood, wasted. Angel watched it, unmoving.  
  
"Angel," a voice from behind him broke his concentration.  
  
"Wes, you're ok?  
  
"Yes, I think that water did just the trick."  
  
"It was the cup, not the water."  
  
"Well, yes." Wes said, not quite understanding his meaning, but not wishing to argue the point.  
  
"The vessel itself is the lifegiver, not the—"Angel paused for a minute, not really knowing what he was saying. "Blood."  
  
"Angel, there was no way you could have known, this isn't your fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine, if I hadn't—"  
  
Angel walked away from Wesley, not hearing what he was blaming himself for this time. The blood continued to flow on the ground, staining the soles of his shoes a bright red. For the first time, since becoming a vampire, though, Angel wasn't thirsty.

* * *

5 days earlier...  
  
"So why'd the boat sink?"  
  
"It was hit by a German U-boat," Wesley responded, visibly annoyed with her constant questioning.  
  
"Huh," Cordelia responded, deep in thought.  
  
"I don't why they just don't switch off on the boat, one of them can just tread water for a while."  
  
"Well, Angel, there are sharks in the water and they have limited fresh water anyway."  
  
"So somebody has to die?"  
  
"Yes, Cordelia. The lifeboat can't hold all of them," Wesley responded, turning back to Cordelia.  
  
"Well, that's just lame, I mean, if I was there I'd just grab another lifeboat, I mean how hard is it to just do that?"  
  
"It's supposed to be moral dilemma, Cordelia, not a brain teaser. Would you kill one to ensure the others would have at least have a chance of survival?"  
  
"Still lame, Wes. Where do you get these things? Jumbo Puzzles?"  
  
"It's an age-old question. For centuries, people have... " Wesley stopped mid- sentence, noticing the more than usual brooding look on Angel's face. "Angel? What's wrong?"  
  
"I don't know, I just—"  
  
Whatever was bothering Angel remained unheard as a scream of pain from Cordelia, interrupted the two men. She clutched her head and they both leapt to their feet in a familiar way, holding her steady as images assaulted her head.  
  
"Ok, that was weird. I got a visual, but no specific address."  
  
"What did you see?" Wes said, moving toward his bookcase.  
  
"A little girl. In an alley. Maybe about 5 or 6."  
  
"What was attacking her?" Looking back towards her, as he rummaged through the books. He appeared to know a lot for the limited description Cordelia had gave.  
  
"Nothing she was just walking. I don't know, the alley looked familiar, but I couldn't place it."  
  
"Cordelia, we need more information."  
  
"Yes, I know that, Angel, sorry my splitting migraine isn't enough for you, but that's all I got."  
  
"Angel, I think I have a lead."  
  
"What, Wes, how could you..." Angel dropped off, finally noticing the little girl and a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway of the hotel.  
  
"Hi, is this Angel Investigations? We need your help."

* * *

"So, remind me why we're going to North Carolina again?" Cordelia, said, stuffing packets of blood into a large white cooler.  
  
"Christine and her mother, Susan, need to go to the balancing dimension called Reverdie. A demon cult is trying to stop them. They need the muscle."  
  
"So what are you going to do?" Cordelia asked in her usual pointed way.  
  
Wesley ignored the insult, "Well, the portal opening to this particular dimension is a tricky business. The only known location for it in this hemisphere is in Manteo, North Carolina. The incantation has to be performed perfectly and the mix prepared with the utmost care, otherwise you just have a rather smelly and foul-tasting soup. Besides, Angel needs someone to drive who isn't going to use the rearview mirror to put on her make-up."  
  
Before Cordelia could respond, Angel walked in. "Are we ready to go?"  
  
"Just about. I need to pick up a few items at the store for the portal opening, but it shouldn't take too long."  
  
"Forget it, we'll load up the car and get them on our way out of town. The longer we stay here, the more chance they'll find us."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Are you two ready to go?" Angel said to Christine and Susan, who were noticeably quiet since Susan had explained their case to the group.  
  
Rick's Magic and Things was conveniently open until midnight. Angel and Wes entered the building at approximately 10 pm and left with a large paper bag full of various jars of magical potions just as it was closing.  
  
"I'm sorry that took so long, Angel, I had no idea there were that many different kinds of biles. I'm afraid to say the Watcher's Academy left me woefully unprepared when it comes to bile."  
  
"It's alright, Wes, we got what we need no harm done."  
  
"Where's Cordelia?" Angel asked as he noticed his black convertible was nowhere to be seen.  
  
"And, more importantly, where's the car? "  
  
As if answering his question, a large, mottled fist struck Wesley in the back and he fell to the ground in pain, dropping the bag of magic supplies Angel turned around just in time to sidestep the demon assigned to him, and trip the rushing demon as it passed by him.  
  
The other demon had Wesley in a headlock and was yelling at him, "Where is the little girl?"  
  
Angel had just dispatched of his demon with a quick snap of the demon's head and noticed that Wesley was making some progress, but his face seemed be getting redder as he attempted to pull a dagger from his jacket.  
  
A savage punch from Angel to the demon's head loosened the hold a bit and Wesley was finally able to remove the dagger from its sheath and jabbed it determinedly into the demon's right eye. The demon fell limp to the ground.  
  
"Well, that's that." Wesley said, pushing himself up from the ground.  
  
"Yeah, if that's all we have to worry about this is going to be a piece of..."  
  
Angel noticed the growing look of panic on Wesley's face and saw the source. Approximately twenty demons were moving across the street straight towards them.  
  
He looked to Wes. "Tactical retreat?"  
  
"Seems sensible." Angel grabbed the bag of supplies and the two men ran down the nearest alley without a particular destination. The vampire was annoyed. Things were going badly and they weren't even out of the city yet.  
  
He now understood why Cordelia had left, but that didn't solve the problem that there were more demons than Angel cared to fight and no clear way to make a retreat from them, besides more running.  
  
"Any ideas, Wes?"  
  
A black car swerved in front of them as they exited the alley. "Cordelia? How did you find us?" Wesley asked dumbly.  
  
"Explanation later, speedy escape now!"

* * *

The car was gassed up when they left Los Angeles and they didn't stop until they were out of California and half way through Arizona. The sun had come up and Angel was napping under his blanket.  
  
"Lucky bastard. He's guaranteed 12 hours of sleep in the daytime. How fair is that?" Cordelia moaned. It was Wesley's shift, but sleeping on car trips wasn't something she was used to.  
  
"Hmmm", Wesley ignored her, obviously deep in thought.  
  
Conditions were cramped in the convertible with five people and the cooler full of blood. Cordelia was not a happy camper. "Are they paying us mileage for this too? Because I can just imagine the mechanic's bills when this trip is over."  
  
"Angel didn't tell you?" Wesley lowered his voice, trying to encourage Cordelia to show the same tact. "This is one of our ... important cases."  
  
"Important as in...?" Cordelia asked suspiciously.  
  
"Pro-bono."  
  
Wesley completely ignored the look on Cordelia's face. "Try to get some sleep, Cordelia, you've got the next shift."  
  
Day came and went and just as Angel was taking over the shift they were entering New Mexico. The Susan and her daughter's silence had not changed since the trip had begun. Occasionally, she would mutter a "thank you", but those were few and far between. Small talk was not something Angel was accustomed to, or particularly liked so their silence was actually a comfort. Cordelia, on the other hand, was disturbed by it.  
  
"I mean we're driving 48 hours together, you'd think she'd want to engage in a little conversation, get to know her passengers, but she barely even talks to her daughter, let alone, us. It's creepy"  
  
"Maybe she doesn't have anything to say."  
  
"Or maybe she's afraid of saying the wrong thing."  
  
"You had the vision, Cordelia, you tell me."  
  
"I don't know, it felt like a normal vision. 'Girl in trouble, go save her.' Nothing too avant-garde. I didn't see the demon guys that were chasing her, but I felt the danger surrounding her. Sort of an approaching doom kinda thing."  
  
"So what makes you think they're not just quiet?"  
  
"Call it intuition."

* * *

Eight hours later as day was breaking and they were entering Oklahoma City, Angel made an executive decision to the sole protests of Wesley who was quite accustomed to long road trips, to stop at a hotel. Despite taking shifts driving, they were all exhausted and in need of a hot shower and a couple hours rest on a real bed.  
  
They rented one double room. And with all of them too tired to debate the sleeping arrangements; the little girl and her mother shared a bed, Cordelia slept in the other bed, Angel slept on the cot and Wesley was stuck keeping watch with his newly obtained Mossberg twelve gauge shotgun for the demon cult.  
  
He spent his time awake researching the incantations necessary for the portal opening and the demon cult that was chasing them. The Fall (an English translation of their Gashundi name which was rather tricky to spell) demons were an ancient group dedicated to bringing about chaos. Unlike most chaos worshippers, who on their own generally pursued relatively small magical activities designed to promote chaos in the world, the Fall pursued large scale activities designed to plunge the entirety of the world into chaos.  
  
The portal to Reverdie's location was guarded heavily, it was enchanted so that unless someone had business there they would not be able to remember the location if it was told or shown to them.  
  
As far as the exact nature of the Reverdie dimension, Wesley could find very little. He had done some preliminary research before they had left and had little success and the books he had taken along on the journey were revealing little else.  
  
Wesley hated not having all the facts related to a case, but he was reluctant to probe the little girl and her mother for more information.  
  
Around 3 in the afternoon, Wesley was relieved of watch and promptly fell asleep. Christine was developing a head cold so as night fell, Angel and Cordelia made a trip to the drug store.  
  
"It's like I'm a whole new person. A showered, non-sleep deprived Cordelia. How many more hours do we have to go?"  
  
"About 20, I think."  
  
"'Cause I'm thinking when this is done, some serious vacation time is needed."  
  
"Do they really need this many cold medicines?" Angel said, obviously confused.  
  
"Let's see, child's generic Dimetapp? check. Tissues? check. All right, let's go." Cordelia grabbed the items unceremoniously off the shelves.  
  
"That's all we're going to get?"  
  
"Angel, pro-bono," Cordelia said handing the items to the cashier. "Just because you're feeling all Gandhi doesn't mean, you don't have to pay my salary. We have to pinch pennies where we can. I mean, some of us have to—"  
  
"What?" Cordelia asked, finally noticing Angel enraptured with the muted news broadcast on the television above the checkout counter. A mug shot of Susan was displayed prominently and then a rather old picture of Christine on a tricycle was shown. The caption read, "Girl abducted from California home".  
  
"I know this is a bad time to say I told you so, but—"  
  
"Don't. Let's go."  
  
Angel had brought a hotel key with him so there was no need to break down the door; which Cordelia had to remind him of when he lifted his foot to the door.  
  
"So what's the plan?"  
  
"Stay out here. We don't know what this woman's capable of."  
  
"She's human, right? I mean you would have sensed it if..."  
  
Angel shook his head in affirmation and put his finger over his mouth to silence her. He needed the element of surprise; Wes was still in there.  
  
He slowly turned the key and walked in. Christine was asleep on the bed and Susan was reading at the table, where the shotgun was also precariously placed. Wesley was snoring softly.  
  
"Where's the—"She didn't have time to finish her sentence, when Angel swiftly flipped over the table and held her up to the wall by the throat.  
  
"You're not her mother! What the hell's going on?"  
  
The expression of total shock on Susan's face, quickly moved to one of panic, "Please, I had to do it. Her mother didn't understand, she wasn't safe there. I did it to save her."  
  
"Kidnapping isn't exactly a walk in the park, either, you're lucky we haven't been arrested or killed yet."  
  
Angel saw in the corner of his eye Wesley stirring from bed. "Angel, what's going on? What are you doing?"  
  
Amazingly, Christine continued to sleep through all of this. "We've been played, Wes. This lady's not her mother, she's her abductor."  
  
"What?", Wesley asked, getting up to retrieve his shotgun (the safety, of course, on) which had flown by the TV.  
  
"Please let me explain," Susan pleaded, starting to grow red in the face.  
  
"Angel, she's no threat, let's hear what she has to say."  
  
Angel eased the tension on her throat and backed away slightly.  
  
"I'm not her mother, yes, but I am her Bagua."  
  
"Her what?"  
  
"Mystical guardian. Christine is a special girl. That's why we need to go to North Carolina. You see long ago—"  
  
"As much as I love a good exposition-fest," the group finally noticed Cordelia's entrance into the hotel room, "We really don't have time for it. I had a vision. They're coming."  
  
"Who? The police?" Wesley asked.  
  
"No, the evil demon cult."  
  
"Oh. When?"  
  
"Oh, I'd say right about now." Cordelia said, looking outside the window at the two white vans pulling into the parking lot.  
  
There was a flurry of movement as Wesley and Angel gathered up his books and everyone else gathered what little stuff they had brought into the room. Susan picked up Christine in her arms and put her in the car. It took less than a minute to pile themselves in the car and as Wesley jumped in the passenger side front seat several of the demons were making the short walk from the motel lobby to their room.  
  
Angel was driving and pulled out of the spot with a screech of the tires, knocking down several of their pursuers in the process. One of them had jumped on the front window, blocking his view. Wesley grabbed his shotgun, eagerly.  
  
"Not through the window!" Angel said in a panicked voice. Disappointed, Wes leaned out of the passenger side, shotgun in hand, and fired. He lost his balance slightly from the recoil. Shooting such a powerful weapon in a precarious position as his was, wasn't exactly something the manual recommended and for a second he thought he was going to fall out of the car as it pulled out of the parking lot, but he felt several hands pull on the front tail of his shirt which had come out during his slumber and he regained it.  
  
Still in a precarious position he nudged the dead demon off the front of the car, and came back in the car.  
  
"Nice shot, Wes."  
  
"Thank you, Angel, it was simply a matter of..."  
  
"Them following us?" Cordelia responded, breathless from their flee from the motel room.  
  
"What?" Wesley asked.  
  
"Look." Cordelia said, pointing out to the rest of the group, the two white vans entering the highway at the same onramp they just got on.  
  
The two vans were accelerating faster than Angel's rather old convertible and there was a limit to how fast his car would go. So despite the pedal never leaving the floor of Angel's car, the vans were catching up with them. Their only advantage was the high number of the cars on the road. Angel dodged and weaved within the cars and trucks in rush hour traffic, as Wesley and the rest passengers gripped whatever they could in anticipation of the time when their luck would run out.  
  
"Angel, this isn't working. Not all of us are immortal here!" Cordelia said, as he swerved in between two large semis when one of the vans pulled in the far right lane next to them.  
  
"All right, Wes, pull out the map. We have to find another way to North Carolina." Angel swiftly pulled off the highway at the approaching exit. Thankfully, he saw, neither of the vans were able make the adjustment in time.  
  
"Angel, what about Christine? The woman abducted her and we're just going to pretend we didn't hear that part."  
  
"I don't have time to argue, Wes, and if you didn't notice we're being pursued by a demon cult who wants to kill us and her. You think the police will scare these guys? This girl will be in more danger if we turn them in."  
  
Wesley was silent. He obviously wasn't happy with the situation, but they had no other choice. He pulled out the Oklahoma map and began to examine their options.

* * *

They drove and then they drove some more, and then they drove some more. Stopping was too risky at this point. However, the demons were able to find them, it had only happened when they stopped for an extended period of time. Wesley had a couple of interesting theories, but no one was very much interested in hearing them. They were all sick of driving, even Angel who had probably had the most sleep out of any of them due to his limitations was beginning to grow cranky.  
  
What was normally a quick 20-hour jaunt was almost double that with their fear of going back on I-40 and being found again. They avoided the major highways, providing for a rather picturesque view of the American midwest and south, but a painfully slow drive. Thankfully, besides getting lost so many times Angel had lost count, the trip had been uneventful since they had given the Fall the slip outside of Oklahoma City.  
  
It was nearing dusk and Wesley was driving again. They were getting close. Wesley estimated their destination to be less than 2 hours away. In spite of their proximity, he was maintaining the speed limit. They were carrying a missing girl and the woman who abducted her, the last thing they needed was attention from the police.  
  
So Wesley was shocked and infuriated when turning onto Route 17, he saw flashing lights in his rearview mirror.  
  
"Bloody hell!"  
  
"Wes, you have to run." Angel said, looking out from under his blanket.  
  
"Angel, we're not exactly in a fast vehicle here, there's no way we'd outrun them. And even if we did, they have our license plate number. I doubt it's anything but a routine stop. I've read they do it tourists all the time in these remote areas. You two get under the blanket with Angel."  
  
Wesley pulled to a stop on the side of the road and waited. He looked at the back seat. It wasn't that convincing, but if the officer didn't pay too much attention he might not notice the three people in the back.  
  
After nearly a minute of excruciating waiting, Wesley finally saw in the rear-view mirror the young, crew-cutted state trooper sauntering to the black convertible, taking careful notice of the outside of the car. He relaxed slightly. Clearly, he had no suspicion of any relation to Christine's abduction, otherwise he would not approach the car.  
  
"What seems to be the problem, officer?"  
  
"Step out of the car please." Wesley did so immediately (anything to get the officer away from the car), Cordelia handing him the registration.  
  
Wesley sat on the hood of the white patrol car waiting, while the officer ran his license and registration. The charge was running a red light; apparently he didn't come to a full stop when he turned at the stoplight. Despite the waiting, he was mostly relaxed. It looked like they were going to get out of this all right.  
  
He should have suspected things were set to go horribly wrong, his luck just was not that good. As the officer was just getting out of his police vehicle with the bright yellow ticket, he saw the now familiar white van approaching.  
  
"Officer, if you don't mind, I have a previous engagement." He was trying to be polite. The English accent helped and for the first time, the office smiled.  
  
"Of course, if you'll just sign here." The officer said pointing down to a faded line on the ticket. "It's not an admission of guilt. If you wish to contest the ticket—"  
  
"Yes, thank you," Wesley quickly grabbed the ticket and nearly ran to the car. The van was very close now.  
  
As he opened the door, he felt a tap on his shoulder and he overreacted. The policeman was on the ground holding his nose, the license and car registration beside him. Cordelia looked on in horror, "I'm terribly sorry, I'm just had too much caffeine and you startled me."  
  
He put his hand down to help the officer off the ground and felt a strong jolt on his leg and saw the taser in the officer's hand before he, too, fell to the ground in pain. The officer was on him in a second, his face pushed in the gravel and his hands pulled behind his back.  
  
Angel jumped from beneath his blanket, broadsword in hand, as simultaneously the van pulled to a stop in front of the convertible and the sun dipped beneath the trees on the landscape. Cordelia pulled a crossbow from under the seat and cautiously opened the door, looking for a target.  
  
Spending nearly 45 hours in a car was fighting motivation enough for Angel, but with nearly ten demons in the van there was only so much he could do. One rather large demon armed with an axe moved past Angel as he was battling two others. Cordelia hit it in the shoulder making it lose the grip on its axe, but it staggered forward to the side of the car where the police officer was looking on in amazement, hovering over Wesley, who was still handcuffed on the ground.  
  
The demon pulled the crossbow bolt from its shoulder and in an instant the officer was lying on the ground with the same bolt sticking in his skull. Wesley began to rise from the ground, but was pushed back down as the demon moved to the back seat, where Christine and her Susan were sitting.  
  
He attempted to lift himself again, and this time with the demon preoccupied with getting the locked car door open, Wesley succeeded in standing up. He rammed with all the weight he could muster into the demon. Surprisingly, the demon fell to the ground (Wesley surmised it was due to the wounded shoulder) and he lost his balance as well. Wes attempted, awkwardly, to hold down the demon with his lanky frame, hands still behind his back. The demon must have had a knife hidden because he felt it enter his side and heard a chilling scream, which Wesley recognized as his own voice.  
  
Angel, having finished with the rest of the demons, quickly dispatched the straggler with a beheading before it could do any more damage and checked on Wesley, uncuffing him with the keys from the officer's belt. The wound looked serious, but his pulse was still steady.  
  
"Wes, hang on. Don't worry, we're going to take of it." Wesley muttered something that resembled an apology, but Angel ignored it.  
  
"We've got to get him to a hospital." Cordelia said, bending down with a towel to slow the bleeding.  
  
"They can help your friend," both Angel and Cordelia turned to see Christine looking down at him. There was strange look on her face; Angel couldn't decide whether it was pity or regret.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The keepers of Reverdie, there is well there with healing powers."  
  
"They can fix this?" Angel asked skeptically.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Come on," Angel gingerly picked up Wesley's still frame  
  
"Angel, are you sure"  
  
"Cordelia, even if we get him to a hospital, I'm not sure if they can do anything for something this..."  
  
"All right, let's go."

* * *

They left the grisly scene and drove the remaining distance. Wesley was still conscious and was able to give instructions to Angel and Cordelia on how to open the portal before he lost consciousness as they were crossing the bridge to the island town of Manteo. Thankfully, Wesley had already prepared the potion necessary before he had started his driving shift.  
  
For once, things went smoothly and Angel and Cordelia's mangled Latin managed to open the portal on the first try.  
  
What greeted them was a barren wasteland at dusk. An elderly group of human- looking creatures approached them, shuffling off the girl and Susan. Cordelia stayed with Wesley and one of the male keepers led Angel to the well.  
  
"You must defeat the knight in battle to use the well. Only a champion may use it."  
  
There were various buckets on the ground, each different sizes and styles. An elderly man wearing medieval armor that looked as it at one time in his life fit him, rose from his seat and attacked, sword in hand.  
  
Angel easily blocked the attack and savagely punched the elderly knight to the ground. He was in no mood for games. He grabbed the bucket closest to him and—  
  
"Wait!" The knight cried from the ground. "Only one bucket will bring life, the rest will death."  
  
"I know this..." Angel muttered, looking from bucket to bucket.  
  
"It's this one!"  
  
"What?" Angel looked disappointedly down at the knight holding a drab, wooden bucket. "I was figuring that out."  
  
He remembered what he was there for and quickly drew some water and headed back to the dried out tree he had left Cordelia and Wesley under.  
  
"You've got it." Cordelia was running towards him as she saw him approaching. She grabbed the bucket from his hands and poured it on Wesley's wound.  
  
"Where's Christine and Susan?"  
  
Cordelia vaguely pointed towards an altar in the distance that was now surrounded by who Angel assumed were the keepers. Wesley was beginning to wake up.  
  
"Angel, where are you going?" Angel was moving towards the altar, quickly. He pushed through the crowd of people to confirm what he already suspected because of his vampire senses. Christine was laying on it, one wrist already cut.  
  
In a burst of strength, several of the keepers were on the ground and Angel moved unabated to the altar. He was thrown back, though, by an unseen force and landed on the ground about 20 feet from the altar.  
  
"Vampire, you must not interfere." An elderly man approached looking on with a blank expression.  
  
"With what? The murder of a little girl?" Angel was upright again, holding up the elderly man by the neck.  
  
"Things are not as they seem."  
  
"Stop it! Now!"  
  
"It is necessary. For this world to survive, blood must be spilled."  
  
"So you have to slaughter an innocent girl?"  
  
"Her sacrifice brings life to an otherwise dead world. We are a land of eternal spring normally, a world that stays the same, so that others may change, but for this to be maintained, a holy vessel must spill blood. She has died countless times for us, for all of you."  
  
"She's just a little girl. How can they ask for her death?"  
  
"No one asks, vampire, she gives it willingly. Your business is done here; you have saved our world and yours. When your friend has recovered, you must leave."

* * *

Angel stood and watched the blood flow across the land, creating new life wherever it spread. Soon, the vast brown wasteland would be a vibrant green, and the sun, which apparently didn't affect Angel, was almost reaching full noon. The elderly keepers were now teenagers and the dried out tree Wesley and Cordelia had retreated under was blooming beautifully with apple blossoms. Susan was nowhere to be seen, but he suspected she was one of the jubilant teenagers roaming the area.  
  
The drive back was shorter and much less eventful. Angel was more silent than usual. As they were nearing Albuquerque, Wesley finally attempted to break the silence.  
  
"What are you thinking about Angel?"  
  
"Hmm..."  
  
"That's not an answer. You can't blame yourself for what happened, the girl consented to the sacrifice, as much as I hate to admit it, it was a necessary one."  
  
"I was just thinking of what she must have done to deserve a punishment of eternal death and sacrifice."  
  
"You think that was her redemption, her penance?" Wesley waited for an answer only to continue to receive silence, "Perhaps, Angel, what made the sacrifice so meaningful was that she gave it not out of need, but of want."  
  
Angel looked out to the landscape again. The barren land was seemingly dead to life, while in reality many creatures lived off the sparse water and food resources. In the distance, he saw a coyote seeking shelter from the approaching rain clouds. 


End file.
